Supporting Datasets for Analyses of Sediment Transport and Channel Change in the Puyallup River Watershed (ver. 2.0, February 2026)

The Puyallup River and it's major tributaries, including the Carbon and Mowich Rivers, are sediment-rich systems in western Washington State, USA, that flow from glaciated headwaters on Mount Rainier to Puget Sound over a short distance. In the populated Puget Lowlands, sediment deposition and associated loss of flood conveyance has been a chronic issue (Prych, 1988; Czuba and others, 2010). The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Pierce County, utilized a rich body of existing data, particularly repeat high-resolution topography, to assess recent channel change and sediment transport in both the lower and upper Puyallup River watershed. The results of that study are documented in a USGS report (Anderson, 2025).

This data release contains input datasets used in that analysis that were not currently available in other public repositories, along with key analysis outputs from that work. The three major data sets are: a large suite of digital elevation models (DEMs) of difference (DoDs), primarily derived from repeat aerial lidar collected between 2002 and 2022; cross section survey data for the lower Puyallup River watershed, collected by David Evans and Associates, Inc. in 2023, and used in assessments of 2009-23 channel change; and photogrammetrically-derived DEMs of the glaciated headwaters based on aerial imagery collected by the USGS in the early 1990s, used in assessments of topographic change in those headwater basins. Each major data suite is contained in its own child item.